Paul’s trial before the Roman commandeer is reminiscent
of a famous episode in the life of St. Justin Martyr whom the Church remembers today. Justin was a second-century philosopher who
embraced Christianity. He was taken into
custody for not worshipping the Roman gods.
At his trial before the Roman prefect, he explained why it would be
absurd for a Christian to offer sacrifices to idols. He said, “No one who is right thinking stoops
from true worship to false worship.” The
refusal to comply with this Roman law won for him a martyr’s glory.

Paul, of course, fares better, at least for the time
being. When he is accused of preaching
Jesus, He cleverly instigates a dispute among the two parties of Jews leveling
the charge. One party declares Paul
innocent when he puts himself on its side of the dispute. Paul, however, will not escape
martyrdom. Indeed, Jesus tells Paul in
this same passage that he will have to bear witness to him in Rome. There he will be beheaded.

We should be aware that Christians today are facing the
same kind of martyrdom as befell St. Justin and St. Paul. Ideas matter, and some people cannot tolerate
the beneficent ideas of Christianity.
That should not deter us from proclaiming them. To say that Jesus is the Son of God is to declare
God’s love for the world. Even if that
idea offends some people, it is worth dying for.

Some parents say that they do not wish to baptize their
children because Baptism would prejudice the way their children look at the
world. Echoing the thought, young people
claim to suspend their belief so that they might experience the world in new
ways. The serious believer, however,
knows that these stratagems actually put one at a definite disadvantage, like not
getting eyeglasses when one is noticeably near-sighted. The gospel portrays Mary as eminently
believing and therefore able to foresee the blessings that God will accomplish
in Jesus.

Mary visits Elizabeth not to test what the angel told her
but because she believes that it is true.
Elizabeth herself recognizes this faith when she exclaims to Mary,
“Blessed are you who believed what was spoken to you by the Lord…” Then Mary voices her famous song praising God
for what will be accomplished in Jesus – remembering His promise of mercy and
filling the hungry with good things.

Dazzled by the products of science and technology, some
see faith as increasingly heavier baggage.
They want it all – the surety of faith and the autonomy of not
committing themselves to any worldview.
Some even try to rationalize the question positing that they do not have
the gift of faith. But they likely do have
faith. God has offered it to most of us
if not through our parents then through blessed companions all the way. Rather than putting it on hold, we should
allow it, as Mary does in the gospel, to bring us unmerited rewards.

Few scenes give more glory to a country than a cemetery
of its dead warriors. The multiple rows
of graves testify to the greatness of the land for which the men and women shed
their blood. It is a picture that transcends
sadness and fills observers with awe. In
today’s gospel Jesus speaks of giving such glory to his Father.

Jesus has labored to bring his Father’s love to the
people. He has been like a good shepherd
and a vinedresser caring for God’s people.
Now is the moment for him to give God the ultimate glory. He will die so that the people know the
extent of God’s love for them.

We need to ask ourselves to whom or what we want to give
glory. By all means, let it not be
something frivolous – a rock group or a baseball team. No, let us say that we live for the sake of
our families, our communities, or perhaps for the pursuit of knowledge. These beneficiaries can be readily aligned
with the greatest good. In the end we
should want to say with Jesus that it is God to whom we give glory.

Memorial Day is sometimes called Decoration Day. This is so because on this day Americans have
traditionally put flowers on the graves of their deceased loved ones. The custom started after the Civil War which
claimed the lives of more Americans than any other. In time people decorated the graves of all
loved ones, not just fallen soldiers.

Flowers symbolize new life. They are fitting for Christian graves because
Christians believe that the dead will live again. The Holy Spirit will reintegrate their bodies
and unite them with their souls. Then
they will praise God in joy for eternity.
We have a foreshadowing of this day in today’s first reading.

Paul meets twelve Ephesians who identify with the Jesus. Perhaps because they do not exhibit much joy,
Paul asks the twelve if they have received the Holy Spirit. When they admit ignorance of the Spirit, Paul
baptizes them in Jesus’ name. The effect
is wonderful. The Spirit moves the Ephesians
to pray in tongues and to tell the wonders of God.

Today’s first reading tells of Jesus encountering Paul. The Lord tells him not to be afraid of Jewish
persecution in Corinth because he has “many people” in the city. Then the reading gives an example. Gallio, the Roman leader, refuses to hear the
accusation made by the Jews against Paul. St. Philip Neri had a similar mystical
experience that moved him to become one of the most celebrated Catholics of his
time.

In the middle of the sixteenth century Philip was pursuing
a career in business. A mystical
experience, however, set him on a different course. He went to Rome where there was a malaise
after the scandals of the Renaissance popes and the initial jolts of the Reformation. Philip began to preach openly on the streets
where the people responded in droves to his wisdom, devotion, and cheerfulness. He became venerated as a saint in his last
years and was canonized one just twenty-seven years later.

Some people claim to have visions of the Lord. They speak of Jesus telling them to do something
or not to do another. It may seem weird,
but why deny it? Rather let us pray that
the Lord may at least consider us one of his “many people.” And let us also respond to such a positive designation
by being cheerful, wise and devoted like Philip Neri.

Jesus’ disciples seem confused. He has told them that they will not see him
for a little while and then they will see him.
They may be wondering if he is not going on a vacation. But if he would tell them that he is going to
his mission of self-sacrifice, they would hardly be able to understand that
either. His saving death and
resurrection are so entirely unique that one has to experience them before
believing.

It may be compared to the cars that are supposed to drive
themselves. Can one believe that they
really can maneuver the traffic of a big city for years on end without a
mishap? It seems impossible that they
will not regularly have problems. Yet
these cars are evidently on the road in Pittsburgh. With Jesus the even more improbable
resurrection from the dead has taken place.
He appeared to his disciples just as he says in today’s passage.

We can believe not only in Jesus’ resurrection from the
dead but also in his sending of the Holy Spirit. With his ascension he gives us the help to
maneuver through the temptations and trials of life. the
Spirit will see us through to our destination alongside of Jesus.

No doctrine of the Church is harder to explain than the
Holy Trinity. How the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit are both three and one almost defies explanation. It is not that they are three entities that
make up a collective like the Three Musketeers, but each one makes of the fullness
of the divine nature. How do they differ
then? They differ only by their
relationships – one is Father; one is Son; and one is the life or Spirit among
them. In today’s gospel Jesus reassures his
disciples with reference to the unique triad and unity of the Holy Trinity.

Jesus underscores the unity of the Trinity when he says
that the Spirit will teach only what it receives from him. In turn he passes on only what he has
received from the Father. One might ask
whether only the Spirit would be present to Jesus’ disciples or to Christians
today. No, Jesus has said in this same
discourse (last Sunday’s gospel reading) that all three are present to his
disciples.

Although we have difficulty understanding exactly the
nature of the Trinity, we can see it as a model for Church life. The Church like the Trinity is a community of
love. Like the Trinity where the Father
has a certain priority so in the Church the Bishop of Rome as well as local
bishops have a kind of priority. We cannot be one exactly like the Trinity is
one, but we should strive for at least a unity of mind and heart.

A man worked for a long time as a product inspector in a
factory. He said that he took such pride
in his work that when he put the label of the company on the product, he was
sure that it would do its job. The jailer
in today’s first reading seems to have this kind of self-respect.

The jailer becomes extremely upset when he thinks that his
prisoners have escaped. In fact, he is
going to kill himself until Paul intervenes.
Then, convinced that Paul and Silas are holy men, the jailer begs to
receive the gospel. The remaining part
of the story gives more evidence of the jailer’s decency. He bathes the prisoners’ wounds and gives
them something to eat.

Although the Church draws a few great sinners, the majority
of people who come to her already exhibit goodness. They are looking for something more,
something solid to ground their inclination to do what is right. We can give these people what they are looking
for. Our kindness of opinion and gentleness
of words in Christ’s name will do it. At
least a few of these people will join our community of faith if they see it
supporting our efforts.

In today’s reading from Acts, Paul, evidently accompanied by
the author of Acts whom we know as St. Luke, crosses the Hellespont into
Europe. It is the beginning of a new
frontier. The gospel evidently arrived
in Rome through others apostles. But
Paul, like Christopher Columbus landing in America, is the one credited for
taking the gospel to Europe.

Paul does not begin preaching in the marketplace before
non-believers, but goes on the Sabbath to a river where Jews habitually
pray. He obviously figures that they
would most likely give him a hearing.
His hunch bears out. We should not
be surprised that a woman is the first one of his converts. Lydia is a Greek proselyte of
Judaism. We may speculate regarding what
about Jesus attracts her to him. Perhaps
it was his message of love for neighbor who included even one’s enemies. Maybe it was his courage to face opposition even
to the point of death. Or it might have
been the promise of resurrection to those who believe in him. We will never know.

But we can examine our own motives for belief. It would be disappointing to hear that we
espouse Christianity only because our families do or because it connects us to
important people or even because it gives meaning to our lives. Hopefully we can say that Christ’s teaching
draws us, his story fills us with expectation of eternal life, and his Holy
Spirit has compelled our assent.

In his book The
Four Loves C.S. Lewis writes that friendship is grossly undervalued in
modern times. He says that the ancients
considered friendship as “the happiest and most fully human of all loves.” In contrast, he continues, modern people have
trouble seeing friendship as a love at all.
Friendship, according to Lewis, is sharing personally and fully over
common interests. By no means does he
equate friendship with regular companionship, however. That is the point; with very few people would
a person risk relating feelings of the heart. It is remarkable then that in
today’s gospel Jesus calls all his disciples’ friends.

But it is not even the case that those men who gathered
around Jesus the night before he died exhaust his list of friends. Really all serious followers of Jesus become
his friends because they recognize in him one whom they can trust implicitly. They
can tell him how they yearn to know God.
In reply he will urge them to keep his commandment of love.

We should see the course of our lives as grooming our
friendship with Jesus. As children we
will listen with awe the gospels stories of him helping the needy. As youth we will imitate his virtue in our
quest to find a mate and launch a career.
And in old age we will confide in him as one who suffered own worries. His friendship will not let us down. Rather, it will bring us to eternal life.

What if the Catholic Church, in order to foster unity
with Protestant communities of faith, relaxed the requirement of attending
Sunday Eucharist? Surely many would
oppose the change as an aberration to a Catholic custom that has been practiced
almost since the beginning. Others would
say that there is no Scriptural mandate to assist in the Sunday Eucharist and
therefore the Church precept is alterable. This question is similar to what the
primitive Church confronts in today’s first reading from the Book of Acts.

It is hard to understate the importance of this meeting
of the primitive Church. The leaders are
to decide the direction of the Church in the future. Will it continue to be primarily a movement
within Judaism, or will it allow Gentiles to be Gentiles while finding their
salvation in the Lord Jesus? The
decision seems to boil down to what James will say. Peter has already been convinced of the need
to let Gentiles eat pork. Paul and
Barnabas, of course, have no objections to the idea. Opposed to the change are the so-called “Judaizers”
who see Christianity as a renewal of Israel with its necessity of keeping the
Law. James’ speaking in favor of the
change with only a few restrictions clinches the argument.

It probably is not a good idea to abandon the Sunday
Eucharist obligation. But Catholics
should be open to similar non-essential changes in order to accommodate
Christian unity. We should not emphasize
our differences from others. Rather we
should seek commonalities so that Christ may be one without diluting all that he
is and all that he tells us.

In one of her novels Ann Tyler writes of a man commenting
on a sign in a grocery store. The sign
reads, “Vine Grown Tomatoes,” and draws the remark: “So what that tomatoes are
grown on a vine? Where else can they
grow? What’s important is that they are
vine ripened.” Jesus says something very
similar in today’s gospel.

Jesus is telling his disciples that they must stay close
to him if they are to meet their objectives.
This applies to every legitimate thing that they do. Whether they raise a family, start a
business, or preach the gospel, they have to follow Jesus’ commands. If they do not -- if they want to be served
more than to serve, if they have contempt rather than love for one another –
their enterprise is sure to encounter significant problems.

At times Jesus seems remote. We do not think he cares about us or we think
that we don’t really need him. Yet he
remains, as St. Augustine said, closer to us than we are to ourselves. We stay close to Jesus by both following his
ways and praying for his assistance.

Christ and Culture
was written by H. Richard Niebuhr in the early 1950s to describe different approaches
theologians have taken to the world. It
says that some Christian writers have seen the world as intractably evil and
opposed it. Others, it continues, have found
the world as fundamentally good and endorsed it. It recommends more nuanced approaches. These will recognize the world as a mixture
of good to be embraced and of bad to be shunned if it cannot be transformed. In today’s gospel Jesus is more
negative. He speaks of the world as the
realm of the devil.

As the devil’s domain, the peace of the world is delusory
at best. It may seem like a good thing
but can bring about great harm. It is
the absence of sensitivity that excessive alcohol induces or the exuberance of
illicit sex. Jesus’ peace is permanent
serenity because it frees one from sin and bestows the Holy Spirit.

We should be at least cautious of what the world
offers. Certainly society still bears
some good as it was created by God. But
it has been compromised over time by the persistent presence of evil. In any case we will want to sow in it the seed
of the gospel by doing good in the name of Jesus.

Western theology speaks a lot of grace. It is famous for describing how grace transforms
the human person to love unselfishly.
Eastern theology is more effusive about divine indwelling. Although its effects are similar to those of
grace, its implications are more suggestive.
Divine indwelling is the presence of the Holy Trinity within the
person. It fills the person like
ecstatic music moving her to do beautiful things. The Greek Fathers of the Church had no qualms
in stating that this indwelling divinizes the person. In today’s gospel Jesus speaks of coming with
the Father and the Holy Spirit to dwell within those who keep his commandments.

One woman after raising her family and burying her
husband dedicated herself to her church community. Assisting in the parish office, she knew
everyone within the community. When the
neighborhood began to change both economically and racially, she remained a
resident for many years. She became
acquainted with her new neighbors and participated in the newly formed block club. She kept Jesus’ commandments to believe in
him and to love another. Perceptive
people could notice the indwelling of Father, Son, and Spirit in her.

All of us probably have met people like this woman in
whom God dwells. They are observant but always
kind. They pursue justice in ways we
hardly imagine without making us uncomfortable.
They do not make much of themselves but bring out the best in us. We should be imminently grateful for these vessels
of God in our midst.

People’s hearts become troubled when they have a terminal
disease. They worry about a poor quality
of life which includes issues of severe pain, loss of control, and becoming a
burden to others. Hand in hand with
quality of life, people desire control over their death. They also are concerned that their choices
will not be honored. Jesus offers some
consolation to those whose death is imminent in today’s gospel.

He tells his followers not to let their hearts be
troubled. Of course, they are disturbed
that Jesus is going to die, not they.
Yet the anguish over loss is at least similar. Jesus assures them that he is going for their
benefit and that he will return.
Further, he implies that they can follow him by living in the ways that
he has instructed.

We should not expect that everyone embrace Jesus’
assurances when death comes knocking. To
those who resist wanting to take their own lives we can offer some reasons not
to. First, taking one’s life has become
trendy leading to others feeling pressured into doing something they do not
want to do. Second, they do not have to
use all the mechanisms available to prolong life but may take advantage of effective
palliative care. Finally and most importantly,
we will be there to the end helping them as much as reasonably possible.

The man is an active Catholic working with you in his
parish. He has a small, successful
business and is married with a family.
He would hardly have dreamt being so blessed fifteen years ago. Then he was in jail reeling from a troubled
childhood. In time he met the Lord
largely, as he tells the story, through the prison chaplain. The encounter turned his life around. His story parallels that of St. Paul
preaching in a synagogue in the first reading today.

Capture the irony.
Just a few years before Paul would have been in a similar synagogue
ferreting out Jews having inclinations toward Jesus whom Christians believed
was the Christ or Messiah. Now he
preaches quite openly that indeed Jesus is the savior of the people. His turnabout came through a sensed encounter
with Jesus risen from the dead.

Many today have experiences such as Paul’s. The Church sponsors activities such as
“Cursillo” and “Christ Renews His Parish” so that participants may know Christ
in ways beyond the intellect. Many
others have a relationship with Christ without such a felt experience. They know him to be real and influential
although they would never admit to hearing him speak to them. In any case we should treat Jesus as he is
preached by Paul – a friend who comes to save us from our folly and all its
effects.

In today’s gospel Jesus states once again that he is the
light of the world. He means that he
enables people to distinguish good from bad.
He can do this unfailingly because he is both God and human. As he says, “’…whoever sees me sees the one
who sent me.’” Jesus’ reference to himself as light
corresponds to what scientists have learned about light many centuries later. Both have a dual nature.

Light acts as both matter and energy. It travels as waves of energy, but it can be
broken down into tiny particles which scientists call photons. Its dual nature allows light to increase its
energy for work. Laser technology is the
harnessing of amplified light energy to perform different tasks like minimally
invasive surgeries.

We should keep ourselves close to Christ. As human he knows our needs. As God, he can help us in any situation. His light will keep us out of trouble. Even more importantly, it will guide us to
our eternal destiny.

In 1947 Archbishop Joseph Ritter of St. Louis ordered all
Catholic schools of the city to accept African-Americans. Many white Catholic parents opposed the order
and threatened to sue the Church. The
archbishop responded by declaring that any Catholic who took part in the
lawsuit would be excommunicated. He
understood better than most that the Church is an assembly for all people of
faith. The first reading today shows the
Church integrating different peoples at an early stage of its development.

Although there are prior instances of gentiles accepting
Christ in the Book of Acts, the passage read today presents a new picture. It indicates that many non-Jewish Greeks participate
in the Christian community in Antioch.
As the members of the community were known as “Christians,” its mixed
nature tells what Christianity is about.
The new religious movement intends to unite all people in mutual love.

We can be grateful to be part of a Church that resists
the tendency to tolerate racism.
Unfortunately, the Church’s record is not perfect in this regard. But still we can be certain that Christ died
for all people and calls all kinds of people together in his Church. The more we promote racial integration, the
truer we are to Christ.

When Fr. Stanley Rother received a message threatening
his life, he refused to leave his mission.
“The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger,” he said. Fr. Rother was a priest from Oklahoma working
among indigenous people in Guatemala.
Eventually he did leave, but he could not stay away long. Urged by the words of today’s gospel, he
returned to the people he had come to love.
Not long afterwards, he was assassinated. As Pope Francis has declared him a legitimate martyr,
Rother will be beatified this September.

Jesus, the Son of God, will lay down his life for all
humans. His death will be neither suicidal
nor resisted. Rather it will manifest
sacrificial love for the good of sinners.
Jesus makes them holy – the first meaning of sacrifice – by acting as
their representative. On their behalf he
perfectly obeys the Father’s will that he immerse himself in the world. It is the world under the spell of the evil one
who has him crucified. God in the end
will raise him and those who join themselves to him from the dead.

We join ourselves to Jesus in Baptism and live this union
in our relationships with others. Mothers
exhibit Jesus’ sacrificial love when they care for a sick child through the
night. Children reflect his love when
they take their feeble parents to see the doctor. All of us show Jesus’ love when we care about
and support one another.

Many people today are concerned about quality of life. The elderly worry about having good health in
retirement. For them quality of life is not to have to live
with chronic pain and, even more critical, not to lose their minds. Meanwhile, young people consider quality of life in economic terms. For them to have a high quality of life means to have the money to buy season tickets to
their favorite sports team’s home games and to take a cruise every other
year. In today’s gospel Jesus has an
alternative conception of quality of life
to consider.

Of course, Jesus does not use the term quality of life at all. Rather he speaks of as having his life within. His life
is much more than biological life, which bread and wine by themselves can sustain. No, he means eternal life or life in
abundance which comes from participating in God’s love. It is a life of gratitude because one is
assured of God loves for her or him. The
Eucharist, Jesus’ gift of his body and blood, depicts this perfectly. Derived from the Greek language, the word means
to be thankful.

We are a Eucharistic people -- a people who continually
give thanks to God. Yet we strive to
become ever more so. We see the efforts
people make for us and thank them. We
recognize how we have benefitted from the work of people in times past and feel
a sense of gratitude for them as well.
Even if our quality of life is not that great in the eyes of others, we know
differently. Sick or well, poor or rich,
we enjoy a high quality of life because we know of God’s love for us and are
thankful for it.

It is said that bread is the staff of life. Supplying most of the calories in a western
person’s diet, bread was once the staple of half the world. Today a range of foods provides the calories
for subsistence. More peculiar is the
fact that many people have recently been diagnosed with an intolerance of gluten,
a composite of wheat proteins. They
cannot digest most bread well and should not eat any product containing more
than a trace of gluten. How does this
development affect today’s gospel claim that Jesus is “the bread of life”?

Just as the life that Jesus offers is greater than physical
life, the bread he gives is more than regular bread. It is his “Eucharistic” bread which provides the
superior life. Eucharistic bread enables
a life of gratitude. It recognizes God
as its source, its sustenance, and its end.
Assured of such a benefactor, the person who consumes Eucharistic bread should
give thanks always.

We have daily access to Eucharistic bread at mass. It transforms us inwardly to become more grateful
for everything. Consuming Eucharistic
bread, we lovingly recognize those who help us.
We can even accept the difficulties that burden our lives with a sense
of appreciation. Shouldered without
rancor, they make us stronger and wiser.
Becoming more Eucharistic, which means becoming more like Jesus himself,
should bring us to mass more often.

St. Veronica is the legendary woman whose name is
associated with a famous maneuver in bullfighting. She is always portrayed as holding with both
hands the cloth with which she wiped the face of Jesus and on which his image
remains. In bullfighting when the matador
swipes the cape held with both hands before the charging bull, he has performed
a veronica. The name Veronica
actually means true image, but in the
gospel the true image does not refer to Veronica or her cloth, but to Jesus
himself who is the perfect representation of God the Father.

The apostle Philip has trouble understanding Jesus when
he says that anyone who has seen him has seen the Father. “Show us the Father,” Philip requests, not
out of defiance but from confusion. It is the same difficulty that Dan Brown
and many others have in imagining that Jesus is really God. “He was a remarkable man,” the skeptics say
and then ask, “but how could he be the creator of the ever-expanding
universe?” It is this awesome wonder that
makes the Incarnation one of the two core beliefs of Christianity.

Jesus invites us to believe in him by promising to
empower us to work mighty deeds. What
does he have in mind – to turn water into wine?
No, one expert says, Jesus is not referring here to “the petty things of
life.” Rather he means to help us overcome
lust, greed, and pride. Even more, he promises
to enable us to assist the poor who may repel us and love the enemy who might
harm us. In all these ways he prepares
us to live with him in glory.

When St. Francis of Assisi heard that some of his friars
were enticing Muslims into killing them, he put a stop to the practice. He insisted that the missionary norms of his
order prohibit both using arms to force conversions and taunting Muslims to
martyr missionaries. One wonders if Stephen
in today’s first reading should not have been prudent in this way.

Stephen is a Greek-speaking Jew. He comes from the Diaspora with little stake
in the Jerusalem temple. His diatribe
against it perhaps reflects the sentiment of his background. More than that, Stephen is a fervent convert
to Christ. He no doubt harbors resentment
for the people of Jerusalem for having executed Jesus. His outburst deserves some response, but
certainly stoning is uncalled for.

Stephen’s story presents us with a few lessons. First, we want to imitate his zeal to tell
others about Christ who is our comforter and helper. Second, we want to avoid Stephen’s
harshness. More people will be drawn to
Christ by reflecting his peace than by exhibiting Stephen’s fury. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, like Stephen
imitating Jesus, we want to forgive those who have offended us. We should begin now so that we do not forget
to do so at death.

Mary, St. Anne, Jesus, and John

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About Me

Bilingual Roman Catholic priest of the Southern Dominican Province. The "homilettes" on this website are completely the work of Fr. Mele. They do not necessarily reflect the ideas of the Southern Dominican Province or of any other member of the Order of Preachers. Mail: St. Albert Priory, 3150 Vince Hagan, Irving, TX 75062.
Telephone: (972)438-1626x205.